Smart doorbell wants to be your crime-fighting sidekick

Ring, the maker of video-equipped doorbells, seems to have investors intrigued—it raised $61.2 million in a third round of fundraising last week— but now it's working on locking in consumers by showing off its crime-fighting skills.

To amp up word-of-mouth about its device's crime-fighting abilities, the Santa Monica-based startup partnered with the Los Angeles Police Department to offer every home in a neighborhood hard hit by burglaries a free doorbell to monitor their property while away as part of a six-month pilot program. One hundred Wilshire Park homeowners, one-fifth of property owners in the area, took Ring up on the offer.

Over the six-months, the neighborhood saw burglaries drop —from nine burglaries to four—when compared to the same period a year ago. While LAPD Captain Vito Palazzolo said during a press conference this week that the decrease can't be attributed solely to the high-tech doorbell—the department also upped policing in the area after a crime spike—extra monitoring doesn't hurt.

No homes equipped with a Ring doorbell were burglarized, Palazzolo said, but an LAPD employee living outside the Wilshire Park area was able to utilize his own Ring doorbell's microphone to ward off a would-be “knock-knock” burglar—one who raps on the door or rings the doorbell to ensure no one is home— while 30 miles away at the time.

Ring announced their pilot program with the LAPD this week, just days after securing $61.2 million. The fundraising round was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Virgin Group's Richard Branson is an investor, too. Altogether, Ring has raised nearly $100 million so far, CEO Jamie Siminoff told Mashable.

That's a far cry from the company's early days, when it was struggling to get off the ground, and out of Siminoff's garage. In the five years since its founding, Ring has undergone a name change, several redesigns and even an unsuccessful bid for backing on ABC's Shark Tank in 2013.

"We got a little lucky," Siminoff said of the recent funding boosts. "It’s hard to hit everything at the right time. We were in the right place at the right time, with the right product and the right solution."

Ring doorbells utilize an HD, night-vision capable camera and WiFi to stream one-way video and two-way audio to a homeowner's smartphone, allowing them to monitor a live video feed of their residence and speak with visitors in real-time, presenting the illusion that they're home.

Ring, which now has more than 300 employees and hundreds of thousands of devices sold (the company wouldn't give specifics) currently produces three products. There's the signature $199 video doorbells— a $249 "Pro" version is launching in April —a chime that alerts homeowners of activity, and an exterior video recorder.

While homeowners have reported using Ring's doorbells to monitor package deliveries or ensure that children arrive home from school, its main selling point is the ability to spot criminal activity while away. In the event of an incident, video of burglars, trespassers and package thieves can then be used to assist law enforcement.

"We as a company really believe in bringing together all of the parties involved in a neighborhood," Siminoff said. "Whether it’s private security, whether it’s neighbors, other community leaders, police, everything else, being able to bring that together really is what’s important. It really does create that fabric that does reduce those crimes in communities."

In the case of the LAPD collaboration, Siminoff approached the department about utilizing Ring doorbells to reduce property crime more than two years ago. Siminoff said he was then approached by the captain of the LAPD station in the Wilshire Park area due to the community's increased burglaries in recent years.

Having worked with homeowners in the community closely over the six-month pilot program, Siminoff said he now considers the Wilshire Park neighborhood to be a sort of sandbox for further developing the device.

"It’s now an area that we can do testing in," Siminoff said. "We've built up a lot of trust over that time."

Though there are no immediate plans to expand the pilot program throughout Los Angeles or collaborate with other law enforcement, Ring is still working with the LAPD to inform residents about the advantages of the device.

"With this one, we did donate the units into the community," Siminoff said. "Obviously as a company we do need to do commerce, and so with those we're working with the communities to get them out in that way."

Siminoff also noted a similar crime-reducing initiative between Ring and residents of Detroit, and said he expects other partnerships will evolve over time. In the meantime, Ring's high-profile financing will allow for Siminoff and his employees to continue refining their technology over the next couple of years.

The company is also looking to utilize insight gained from the LAPD pilot program to promote the Ring doorbell internationally. Siminoff said the device is already used by consumers in more than 100 countries around the world, and predicts 2016 will be a banner year for the company's international presence.

Ring's success has come at a time when other high-tech doorbells have entered the market, though Siminoff brushed off the suggestion that other devices provide much competition.

"I wouldn't say there are similar products," Siminoff said. "We see some copycat stuff out there, but Ring was really created not just for the physical product, but also because of our mission to be a neighborhood solution-based company."

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